Paper short abstract:

Since 2019, over ten thousand Hong Kongers have migrated to Taiwan, whose artistic expressions convey emotions of uncertainty, rootlessness, struggle, and haze, which can be recognized as trauma, and reflect how the experience of displacement has made their expressions fragmented and chaotic.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the creativity, agency, and also vulnerability of the diaspora community and anthropologists in the field when encountering trauma, and highlights how the method of collaborative ethnography can foster reconnection and healing. Since 2019, over ten thousand Hong Kongers have migrated to Taiwan. Due to the constant identity and emotional struggles between Hong Kong and Taiwan, they have experienced traumas that are difficult to name. Through participatory observation and co-curation, I invited several Hong Kongers who had similar experiences to express themselves anonymously through various art forms, such as painting, poetry, music, graffiti, and short films. These artistic expressions convey emotions of uncertainty, rootlessness, struggle, and haze, which can be recognized as trauma, and reflect how the experience of displacement has made their expressions fragmented and chaotic, causing a rupture in their relationship with themselves and others. Collaborative ethnography, through the more expansive and open medium of art, which allows for nuance in expression, can enable them to share and be seen so as to help them heal each other and rebuild connections with the world.